Coherence in the Danish Healthcare System: The Endavour of Governing Healthcare

In this article, we investigate ‘coherence in healthcare’ as a strategy of welfare policy. We conduct our investigation within the theoretical and methodological framework of Scandinavian praxeology, and we construct our empirical data from Danish administrative documents. The tools and terms of this tradition are used to generate data from discourse as representations of institutional logics. The aim is to uncover how coherence in healthcare emerges as different strategies in healthcare governance in relation to different institutions seen as positions. Hence, our findings suggest that, although the stated aim in policy is to improve coherence in healthcare for the benefit of the patients, various ambiguities within the institutions producing policy tend to maintain a certain order rather than introducing changes. Furthermore, we discuss how this section of the welfare state, examined in relation to the strategy of coherence, is a part of greater efforts to the endeavour of governing healthcare.